Over the past decades there has been a shift from smaller localized family farms toward larger integrated confinement agricultural operations. Large agricultural operations typically utilize confinement barns to house a large number of livestock, such as swine. It is not uncommon for hog-confinement operations to be grouped in close proximity, forming “mega-farms” which may house tens of thousands of hogs. While these larger agricultural operations have numerous advantages, they also encounter significant pollution problems arising from the handling and treatment of manure and wastewater. Pollution problems associated with animal waste include nitrogen, phosphorus, solids, bacteria and foul odors that result from bacterial digestion.
Environmental concerns more specifically center on odor and water quality issues. Noxious gasses including ammonia, methane, hydrogen sulfide, fatty acids, and indoles may be emitted within the animal storage facilities. Odors emanating from confinement houses create a nuisance. In addition, the noxious gasses produced by animal waste create a potentially hazardous environment for humans working in animal storage facilities and the animals housed in such facilities.
The animal waste produced in these storage facilities can generally be separated into two categories: waste deposited by the animals directly into waste storage areas and waste deposited outside of the waste storage area onto other surfaces of the storage facility. While a few methods of addressing the odor caused by waste deposited directly into waste storage areas are known, the problem of controlling the odor and bacteria emanating from waste deposited onto the other surfaces of animal storage facilities has not been sufficiently addressed. Even in facilities where the waste storage areas are adequately treated in some manner to prevent the emission of noxious gasses, the waste remaining on the surfaces of the facility can be sufficient to produce an amount of noxious gasses and bacteria that is harmful to both livestock and humans.
Another air quality issue in animal storage facilities relates to the temperature of the air in the facilities. Livestock holding facilities are frequently subject to dangerously high temperature levels during warm weather months. These high temperatures adversely affect the health and comfort of the livestock in the facility, thereby impacting their growth. Controlling the temperatures in these facilities in an economical manner has proved to be a consistent dilemma over the years.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.